Mountain Climbing
by xSn0wangel
Summary: When Gray takes his boyfriend to Colorado, Natsu was expecting something a little different. Gratsu One-shot!


I snuggled my chin down into my fluffy scarf when a fierce wintery wind blew down from the top of the mountain. Glaring at my boyfriend's back as he trudged up the rocky stone stairs a few paces in front of me, I wondered how much further it could possibly be until we made it to the lake near the summit. Gray had always been the outdoorsy type, so when he suggested a road trip to the Rocky Mountains, I really wasn't surprised.

Actually, setting aside my dread for what would be a terrible car ride, a trip to a cold place sounded oddly romantic. I'd pictured snuggling in front of a fireplace with two steamy mugs of cinnamon flavored hot chocolate as we watched a snow storm rustling around outside. Maybe we'd end up in an outdoor hot spring. After settling down in the soothing water we wouldn't want to get out for hours and it would be fascinating to see the snowflakes sprinkle down on our heads without feeling their chill.

Flash-forward to freezing my balls off while hiking up some shoddy mountain trail and trying my best not to slip and die on all the stupid ice.

Gray came to a stop and looked back at me over his shoulder.

"Come on slowpoke," he said with a bright grin.

My cheeks were only red from the frickin' cold, not from his adorable cheerfulness.

He continued on ahead of me and I held back a sigh as I clambered after him. If there was one upside to this, it was that the stairs were just steep enough that Gray's sexy butt was constantly right in front of my face. Even in his loose blue jeans, I couldn't help but admire its shapeliness.

"Natsu look! We're already halfway!"

If only I had a lighter to set fire to the damn trail marker. How could we only be halfway?!

"Wow, there are a lot of names here," Gray spoke as he examined one of the aspen trees lining the trail. I stopped my grumbling long enough to see what he was so interested in. The bark of the tree was covered in letters and hearts from top to bottom where lovers wanted to document their relationships and when I looked up the path, I noticed that it wasn't the only one.

"Check it out." I pointed ahead so Gray would see what I was talking about.

"Dang! This must be a really popular place for couples."

"Guess, so," I agreed as I wondered why the hell so many people would choose something like this. Lucky jerks probably hiked up here in the middle of summer when the high was around a pleasant 70 degrees.

"It's too bad I don't carry a knife with me or we could do it too."

I frowned as I imagined it. "I think it's a dumb idea anyways."

My hand rubbed across the damaged bark of the closest tree. While some of the names and initials were crisp and clear, many had bleed out and morphed as the tree continued to grow. Lots of letters weren't even legible as they'd formed dark blobs marring the bark's surface. I was probably a tree-hugger but I thought it was kind of sad seeing their trunks all hacked up in such a way. Why did people want to cut up a plant to show they loved each other?

"Hey wait! Here we are!"

I moved around the tree a bit to see where Gray's fingers were. Etched inside an uneven heart shape were the initials G and N with a little plus sign between them.

"Ha, you're right." Even though I didn't like the idea of it, seeing us represented on the tree warmed my heart a little.

"Come on, if we don't get going we'll never get back in time before that breakfast place closes."

Of course my boyfriend's idea of a post-hike meal was a restaurant that exclusively served breakfast.

"Why don't you lead for a bit?" he suggested for probably the same reason that I liked him being in front. Biting back a remark about him being a pervert, I moved ahead of him.

As we progressively climbed higher up the winding trail, the path was slowly becoming steeper and somehow more packed with ice. Most of the time I had to support my weight with my arms against the nearest tree or boulder just to keep myself on my feet because it turns out tennis shoes aren't a good match for ice.

I heard a grunt behind me and turned around just in time to see Gray with a rather impressive balance check. He smiled and gave me a thumbs up before stepping higher. However, his lack of concentration at that point was his downfall. His right foot wasn't as solidly placed as he thought and when he lifted his left, his body twisted around to try to fall gracefully. But before he landed on his behind, his hands reached out towards the ground so they took the blunt of the fall.

I flinched as he raised his hands and his palms were streaked with red.

"Gray!" I carefully moved back down to sit beside him as I grabbed one of his wrists to see the damage.

"They're just scratches," he muttered. He brushed some gravel out of one of the cuts and leaned over to rub his hands in some snow. Without as much blood, I could tell the scrapes were shallow and would likely stop bleeding soon and they were mostly on the sides of his hands instead of his palms so they'd be easy to bandage. He ultimately didn't look too bothered by them.

"You're not allowed to fall anymore," I said seriously. He laughed at my pouting face as we slowly stood again.

He was in the lead again after that because I didn't trust him slipping down behind me. Considering he set a faster pace than I had, it wasn't too much longer until we finally saw the last wooden sign.

"Gem Lake eh? With a name like that it should be pretty impressive!"

I pretty much had to be excited with the amount of enthusiasm he had, but I thought it was suspicious that I didn't hear any water over the sound of the wind. When we rounded another high corner expecting to see said lake, I really wasn't surprised.

"Its….frozen," Gray said as he tried to make sense of the view in front of him.

The water wasn't only rigidly frozen solid, but we couldn't even make out its edges with the amount of snow covering it and whatever its surroundings were. There were trees bordering what could have been a field for all we could see, but eventually I saw some posts sticking up through the snow.

"Hey look! I think this is the dock." Walking over and pushing aside the fluffy whiteness, I tried to show him the wooden poles.

My boyfriend was silent as he shoved his hands into his pockets and stared down at the ground.

"Gray?"

Shuffling back over to him, my breath caught as I saw something behind him.

"I'm sorry Natsu."

"Wha?" My eyes focused on him again as I wondered what he could possibly be apologizing for.

"I made you come all the way to Colorado when you can't even drive to school without feeling sick. Even though you hate the cold, I forced you to climb the three miles up here through these mountains, even though it was incredibly dangerous and you could have seriously hurt yourself….and for what?"

He glared over at the unmoving water.

"For a fucking frozen lake that you can't even see!"

"Gray…."

"Don't say it's not my fault because it is!"

"Gray please just…"

"No, I'm so sorry," his voice shook slightly as he spoke, "After all this I'm yelling at you."

Knowing that talking wasn't going to get me anywhere, I grabbed his shoulders and spun him around.

Maybe the lake wasn't a gem, but the view from it was a treasure all by itself.

From all the way we'd climbed, our vantage point of the surrounding mountains was beautiful. The snow brushed ridges extended towards the heavens with an array of contours. Green trees blanketed the valleys in between them and rose to the tops of the some of the lesser peaks. The blue of the sky mixed with the gray of the clouds with the sun high above it all, only added to the amazing view.

My arms extended from Gray's shoulders to wrap around his arms and chest because dang it I'd wanted to cuddle this whole trip. Luckily I was tall enough to be able to rest my chin in the crook of his neck.

"I love you."

He turned his head and kissed my cheek as he rested his hands over mine.

"I love you too."

L7L7L7L7


End file.
